About the High Line

The High Line is a new public park, built on an elevated 1930s rail structure located on Manhattan's West Side. It runs from Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District to 34th Street. The first section of the High Line opened to the public in June 2009. The High Line is property of the City of New York, and is maintained and operated by the non-profit Friends of the High Line, in partnership with the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation.

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I hope you were able to join us last Wednesday under the High Line as we celebrated the release of Designing the High Line, our new design publication showcasing High Line designs from Gansevoort-30th Street. With some help from a lighting designer and Michael Arenella and his Dreamland Orchestra, we transformed a construction staging area into an amazing party venue. Check out photos by our fabulous volunteer, Jeffrey Donenfeld. At Friends of the High Line, we concentrate a lot on what the space on top of the High Line will look like, but this event got me excited about how great the area underneath the Line can be!

Over 700 guests mingled under the Line while enjoying tasty treats from the Cleaver Co. and sipping Brooklyn Brewery beer. Thanks to everyone who showed up to toast our design and construction teams, and a special thanks to the evening’s sponsors, Related, Cardinal Investments, 511 West 25th Street, SHoP Architets, and Alf Naman for the use of the space under the Line. If you didn’t get to pick up a copy of Designing the High Line, it’s available on Amazon.com.

[Paddlers enjoy a history lesson about Concrete Plant Park, opening to the public in September]

On Saturday, 60 High Line supporters ventured up to Hunt’s Point in the South Bronx for a tour of the Bronx River–by canoe. Staff from the Bronx River Alliance guided us down the river past a dynamic combination of still-functioning industry, new parkland, and a host of wildlife (crabs, egrets, mussels, you name it). We started off at Hunts Point Riverside Park, which is part of the new greenway project spearheaded by the Sustainable South Bronx. The project seeks to create a network of walking and biking paths, new parks, and water recreation, ensuring that residents of the South Bronx get their fair share of green space and access to the waterfront.

Members of Friends of the High Line receive a discount and hear about our public programs first–to become a member, click here.

If you missed the tour this weekend, never fear–the Bronx River Alliance holds public tours all summer long. Click here to see a schedule of upcoming events [PDF].

Relatedly, The Floating Pool Lady will offer an alternative to Hunts Pointers to swimming in the Bronx River for the next three summers.

Despite the heat wave this weekend, 80 intrepid High Line supporters took part in our first ever High Line horticulture tours on Saturday. Alex Feleppa, director of horticulture for the Horticultural Society of New York, took visitors on a journey through the rail yards section of the Line (30th-34th Streets), the only part of the Line not yet under construction. Alex highlighted native and invasive species, plants’ adaptation to tough conditions like those on the High Line, and the way seeds spread and germinate.

These tours were part of our regular spring/summer programming calendar. To hear about upcoming programs, join our mailing list, or better yet, become a member of Friends of the High Line. Members get advance notice of programming events.

It’s not too late to join us and Alex Feleppa, director of horticulture for the Horticultural Society of New York, for a naturalist walk on the rail yards section of the High Line. The walks are this Saturday, June 7 (there are three sessions.)

We’re not usually able to bring people up to the High Line, so this is a rare chance to see it in its natural state.

Space is extremely limited and there are only a few slots left. Once they are full, you will be able to add yourself to the wait list, and we’ll contact you if there’s a cancellation.

The cost is $10 for members and $20 for non-members. Of course, you can always become a member to get early notice and discounts on programs like this in the future.

Tomorrow night at the Leo Kesting Gallery, we will fete the opening of Chalk Shoes to the High Line, a show documenting the April 16 performance led by artist Julia Mandle that featured 60 8th-graders from the Lab School in Chelsea. The students donned shoes made from green chalk and scuffed lines along the sidewalks of the Meatpacking District and Chelsea, ending at future High Line access points. The exhibition that opens tomorrow and runs through May 21 will feature rows of the used shoes, photographs taken by the kids, and a video of the performance by Matt Wolf.

[Rendering of Spencer Finch’s installation on the HIgh Line inside the Chelsea Market Space.]

Artist Spencer Finch will discuss plans for the public art work he’s mounting on the High Line at a FREE public lecture next week. The piece, called “The River the Flows Both Ways,” will be installed where the High Line goes through Chelsea Market, and is made of 720 pieces of colored glass based on light conditions Spencer observed on the Hudson River. It’s set to open along with the rest of Section 1 of the High Line by the end of the year. Spencer will also be discussing some of his other projects.

This afternoon, sixty 8th-grade art students from the Lab School for Collaborative Studies donned tall, blocky shoes made of green chalk and scuffed West along the streets of Chelsea and the Meatpacking District, drawing chalk lines with their feet that ended at three future access points to the High Line.

The choreographed performance was Chalk Shoes to the High Line, a project we created with performance artist Julia Mandle, as part of our ongoing education program with the Lab School. (Today’s walk was the culmination of a unit on performance art, which we certainly never learned about in middle school!)

Hopefully you caught the performance on the street today or saw the bold green chalk lines it left behind. If not, you can check out an exhibition of the chalk shoes, as well as photos and video of the performance, at the Leo Kesting Gallery starting May 15.